Well, now I have something to look forward to for the fall season at least.

As to this & the 3rd "World Series" getting licensed, let's just hope that a good percentage of the fans put their money where their mouths are and buy the Series 1 & 2 boxsets when they're released in September & October, respectively.

Since this is by-and-large a fujoshi series and fujoshi are quite well known for their purchasing power, I think it's safe to say that FUNi will have a pretty big hit with this super niche series.

I was thinking the same thing. If BL manga can keep selling relatively well despite little-to-no physical presence in actual stores, that means there's a fanbase that's willing to actively seek it out in online shops. Like you I'm hoping Hetalia, being at least tangentially related to that genre & its fans, enjoys the same "active, seeking" fan support (as opposed to casual, browsing-based sales).

Yeah, if the fanbase actually goes out and buys it, then we wont have a problem. They do seem to have a collector's mentality, which is a good sign. Unfortunately, you also have those people refusing to buy an English release that "ruins" the series (despite having subs) or the ones who complain that it isn't worth 30 dollars.

I already pre-ordered, and encouraged some others to do so as well. Hopefully the sales are good enough that Funimation goes out for the 3rd and 4th season licenses (and maybe simulcasts!).

The fujoshi masses are outraged over the dubs. The wankery going on in the Hetalia LJ community can singe your eyebrows. I'm not so sure now that the fandom as a whole will buy the sets. I'd like to think that they will.

My copy is pre-ordered and I'm tempted to have a second one because I know those DVDs are gonna get replayed over and over for the lulz.

I'm glad it's getting a 4th season. There's still so much material that hasn't been covered. We're just starting to discover those wacky Nordics and with the introduction of Denmark and Norway (Iceland was in the Hetalia movie), we'll have a complete set.

The fujoshi masses are outraged over the dubs. The wankery going on in the Hetalia LJ community can singe your eyebrows. I'm not so sure now that the fandom as a whole will buy the sets. I'd like to think that they will.

Funimation is taking a gamble with the dub. It might appeal to a wider audience than before, or it might alienate the built in audience without attracting new people.

Let's not pretend this is a case where the "dumb fandom" is rejecting the dub for "stupid reasons".

Not even going to touch the dub wankery though. *sigh* Suffice to say there's a significant percentage of the fandom who are boycotting the dvds over the script changes.

While I'm completely unenthused by the addition of "wacky accents," no one's forcing me to watch the dub (and I won't be anyway). But what's this talk of script changes? That's just in regards to the dub, right?

[quote="musouka"][quote="Peebs"]The fujoshi masses are outraged over the dubs. The wankery going on in the Hetalia LJ community can singe your eyebrows. I'm not so sure now that the fandom as a whole will buy the sets. I'd like to think that they will.[/quote]

Funimation is taking a gamble with the dub. It might appeal to a wider audience than before, or it might alienate the built in audience without attracting new people.

Let's not pretend this is a case where the "dumb fandom" is rejecting the dub for "stupid reasons".[/quote]

It's such a big gamble that they licensed the 3rd and 4th seasons within a day of the announcement for the 4th season. Plus the movie which I hear is not all that (again, from fans in Japan). This is the thing with the Hetalia fandom: 1) you get the dub/sub/cast haters, and 2) you get the cosplayers at cons surrounding and loving Funimation. I think in the end Funimation will do very well with the DVDs. People will console themselves with the subs because they can write all the letters and e-mail they want, the prints are in the press and just waiting something or other to be shipped. No fan will make Funimation do what they want.

It's not that their reasons are stupid. The irony is that they're hating a dub that parodies a parody of country stereotypes, history (notice how some topics from WW2 have not been addressed in the 4koma, or more recent news like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or 9/11), slash pairings, etc. It's okay to be offended and make your voice heard. It's the flaming and general wankery that makes me roll my eyes.

Seriously though, the Funimaton dub is terrible. I wouldn't care about their horrible attempts at accents (which is pretty much standard issue 'americans talking in silly voices=accents') if they hadnt made all the pointless script changes. Most of the changes don't even make sense to me. It's completely altered the feel of the show, but not for the better. It's on the same level as those joke fandubs you see on youtube...and I just really question why they'd do this with a professional release, especially for something like Hetalia. Did they really think the original script, with its popularity, wasn't 'good enough'?

They have added in lines that werent in the original, many of which are eye-rolling and even offensive at times. It's like an attempt to turn Hetalia into what all its haters originally panned it as back when it first came out, before any of said haters had actually bothered to watch it. Fratboy style "hurr look it's funny cos it's so politically incorrect!" humour was never what Hetalia was really about. Sure it pushed the envelope at times but it was a lot more subdued and not outright insulting. There's also the fact that the things the characters say in the dub are outlandishly OOC.
I know no one's going to force me to watch it - hell I'm not even buying it (not that I'm boycotting it; I've been buying the japanese dvds anyway), but I can't help think of how many of the 'dub-only' anime fans are going to get a completely distorted view of what the show actually is now.

...of course the news is actually about season 4, which I'm happy about. Almost none of the third volume has been animated, after all, and there is a 4th volume scheduled (it does say 'to be continued in #4' at the end of volume 3). I just wish a studio other than Deen could have a crack at it for a change.

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